An American writer between Paris and New York discovers different wines... on a shoestring. Stories, tastings, slices of life and glasses of wine.

Friday, October 03, 2008

Cheesy dreams

Apparently, the British Cheese Board believes that eating cheese has a beneficial effect on sleep and dreams. This titter-worthy study reveals some of the ins and outs of the curd's influence over our nocturnal life.

Two nights ago, I did an informal test of my own, ingesting a fair piece of Roquefort at the end of my evening meal. Indeed, consequently, my dreams, as the old wives' tale holds, were colorful.

But that aside, eating Roquefort got me to thinking two things. One, that any cheese that requires putting something even higher in fat (i.e. butter) on the bread beneath it is a thing of perversity. And second, that as far as wine goes, Roquefort is the avenging angel, wiping out reds, whites, and bubblies with a cold metallic knife. No quarter! Those wines turn tin.

As I'd already been drinking a fine bottle of dry table wine, I wasn't going to go and open a Sauternes or Jurançon - and of course, I don't like stickies, anyway. So where does that leave me with this curio of a cheese? Will I be able to find something it'll go with?

4 comments:

Roquefort has to be about the worst. I pretty much never have it with wine. Too salty, and I totally agree about the metallic thing. It can work as you note with quite sweet things, but it does no favors for them either.

I suppose it is most apposite in thin pear roquefort tarts, or those big ol' salads with duck breast prosciutto and walnuts and pears again and all that. (That said, such a salad is not too shabby. And it's pretty damn good with Muscat de Hambourg grapes, my favorite.)